Thursday, January 15, 2009

Umbrella Lightcover

I went to London last year to visit my sister, which was awesome. She lived in Notting Hill at the time and I loved the neighbourhood - the streets with picture perfect Georgian rowhouses... I'm a sucker for that stuff. There was one cute little shop there full of delightful things that you would expect to find in a charming, quirky shop. Including a fabulous umbrella. I loved it, had to have it. Bought it. Forgot that I still had several international flights ahead of me. Needless to say, the umbrella did not survive the baggage handlers. So, I mourned my umbrella - Vancouver would have given it lots of use too.

Here it is being enjoyed by my cat. Notice the handle has broken off. It took forever to get the umbrella open once it had broken.... then we couldn't get it closed again. It sat around, open, looking sad for a while.

Then, inspired by Kalin, I decided to use the leftovers as a light cover!

I had a drab, boring light in the little entryway alcove to my tiny apartment so I decided to string it up there. A hacksaw shortened the remainder of the pole, and then it was just a matter of some eyehooks screwed into the ceiling and some wire - and - bob's your uncle - it was done.

I think it's a big improvement.

Here are the before shots (yawn) - we've got nice high ceilings, otherwise this wouldn't have worked:


And after - much sassier, I think:

9 comments:

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

This is SO. FREAKING. COOL. I have to find one so I can do this in my hallway!!! Love! Thanks so much for sharing this, I'll be linking.

Rhiannon said...

a that is AWESOME. The shape is just perfect. I've never seen an umbrella shaped like that. It was MADE to be a lamp shade.

Unknown said...

What a wonderful and clever idea! It looks absolutely divine.

Lisa said...

Thanks guys! =)

Anonymous said...

love it!

paintingpam said...

I love lampshades and that is the most creative I've seen.

redchuckstress said...

what's your cats name? he is so cute!

Lisa said...

That's Kitty - and I'm addicted to taking photos of her. ;)

Momma Shine said...

The kitty in the picture brought back a lot of memories for me. We had a Cat That could be our cats twin. We called him Shasha. We had him in a Cat show and he won best in show. He lived for 19 years. Thank you for the wonderful picture and the memory.
Robin Rodgers/ Ohio